Navigating Pregnancy and Perimenopause as Singers

I recently decided to specialize in helping singers navigating both pregnancy AND perimenopause.  

Why both? 

Because Pregnancy and Perimenopause are mirrors of each other. 

These are times in our lives when hormones change, our bodies change, our brains change and we change. 

A lot of singers worry about how hormones will affect their voices during this time, but the reality is that what’s happening in your brain is way more important than what’s happening in your throat. Because even if nothing changes about your voice, there is so much happening in your brain and body that singing can feel wildly different even if it isn’t technically different. 

I think one of the most important things happening to women during this time is that the things that used to work for them, stop working so well. This could be how you move in your body as much as how you sing.  What do you do when these highly complex movement patterns you’ve been using for years start to get stiff and sticky?

High notes change, resonance gets a bit less brilliant, flexibility lessens, maybe your voice starts to feel thin… but none of these are indications that your voice isn’t working. These are more likely indications that you just need a bit of a technique update. An updated process for singing that matches where your body and brain are now. 

We’ve been conditioned as a society to think that once you find your groove things stay the same and only change when you do something “wrong”. The reality is we are constantly navigating internal changes and in singing we need to update our processes and tools to support those changes. 

And pregnancy and perimenopause are two of the biggest points of change an adult singer can experience in their lives.

To add a layer of complication here, as the average age of mothers gets older, we’re seeing more women having children near the onset of perimenopause which means it’s that much harder to find a comfortable baseline in your body.  Is what you're experiencing the exhaustion and overwhelm of parenting or the beginnings of perimenopause?  This increases the challenge of navigating care and support when your body isn’t responding the way you think it should.  The reality is you might be focusing on the wrong form of support.

So, to me, creating a space that’s dedicated to normalizing the unique changes female singers experience in their lives is not only important for singers, but a necessity for our industry.  Expecting female singers to perform with the consistency and longevity as they’re navigating postpartum and perimenopause simply isn’t realistic.  Their voices aren’t going to disappear overnight, but they do need freedom to heal properly and explore new repertoire if we want them to have long, successful careers. The more we can normalize the shifts that occur with childbirth and aging, the more opportunities we can give singers to keep performing.

I want singers to feel safe in their work and their bodies because that’s when they do their best work.  Understanding how brain changes affect not only how you feel, but how you exist in the world, how your nervous system functions, and how you can find resiliency and grace in the face of constant change allows you the freedom to focus on being an ARTIST.  

I help my clients sing with confidence now and into the future by understanding what’s normal, what’s not, and how to navigate the physical, mental and emotional changes that come with pregnancy and perimenopause.  If you’re looking for answers and support in these changes send me a message to learn more about how this work can help you.